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Is university needed?

I am 17 and am looking in to whether i should go to university next year. I was wondering if anyone had any advice. I am looking to go in to gave development would it be better for me to go to uni or to get a team together and start making games and building up my port folio.

I found myself in a similar situation around your age, I am now a 24 year old freelance web entrepreneur with clients of my own and collaborate with businesses.

I found myself with little choice of places to go study and decided not to give up on my dream, so I learned coding from websites like w3schools, php.net, youtube and other places, It took me a while because I had a day Job till I was 22, but I guess, what I am trying to say is, that If you are really sure that is what you want to do and are willing to "get out of your way" to make your dream a reality, it really all comes running to you, and almost seems effortless.

I hope this message can inspire you in some way, if you think university is your way, then do it, but its not "necessary", it all comes down to your own willpower.

Depending on your country, university can be very costly. As Ben said you can attempt to teach yourself but a mentor of some kind would be of benefit. Have a look around at the various courses you can study from home. They may be more beneficial, especially if run by someone who has inside knowledge of the industry.

If you have an idea for a game you could always try and gather a team of like minded programmers / developers etc and try and raise funding from something like kickstarter.

According to my opinion, you should go to university. It's true that skills are more important but degree has its own value. Sometimes we also need a degree with skills. You can increase your professional skills by giving two to three hours daily after university. At the end, you will be a skilled person, and you have also a degree in your hand.

I found myself in a similar situation around your age, I am now a 24 year old freelance web entrepreneur with clients of my own and collaborate with businesses.

I found myself with little choice of places to go study and decided not to give up on my dream, so I learned coding from websites like w3schools, php.net, youtube and other places, It took me a while because I had a day Job till I was 22, but I guess, what I am trying to say is, that If you are really sure that is what you want to do and are willing to "get out of your way" to make your dream a reality, it really all comes running to you, and almost seems effortless.

I hope this message can inspire you in some way, if you think university is your way, then do it, but its not "necessary", it all comes down to your own willpower.

Good luck, Ben

hats off to you man....few people work hard to make there dreams a reality

adam i think if you can afford university why not go for it....They are more systematic for a start and you can get a bit of a push and motivation.....though like benny said we have some great coding websites,tutorials and forums for a person to learn himself...its an important decision....best advice:just follow your dreams....

In my own opinion i think you really need to go to the University, It's very hard to find a job now a days and how much more if you don't finish your studies but its still up to you how can you make your dream realistic

Last edited by vinyl-junkie; 07-27-2013 at 02:38 AM.
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